pope and foreign kings seeking to extend
their influence to wealthy city-states such
as Milan and Florence. The emperor allied
with Pope Leo X and went to war against
Francis I in 1521. Charles’s army won an
important victory at the Battle of Pavia in
1525, capturing Francis and bringing him
to Spain, where the French king was forced
to sign the Peace of Madrid. This treaty
freed Milan from French control and
ended France’s claims to Burgundy. When
he returned to France, however, Francis
claimed he had signed the treaty under
duress and renounced it. He formed an al-
liance against Charles that included King
Henry VIII of England, Pope Clement VII,
and the cities of Venice, Milan, and Flo-
rence. Charles responded with an invasion
of Italy. His armies brutally sacked the city
of Rome in 1527 and took the pope hos-
tage. The Treaty of Cambrai in 1529 tem-
porarily ended the conflict bctween the
emperor and the French king; soon after-
ward Charles also signed the Peace of Bar-
celona with the pope. In 1535, Charles in-
stalled his son Philip as the Duke of Milan
in defiance of Francis, who was again
claiming the city. The war continued until
1538, then resumed in 1542 with Francis
allying with Suleiman I, sultan of the Ot-
toman Empire, and Charles allying with
Henry VIII.
In 1530, after reaching a peace agree-
ment with Pope Clement VII, Charles was
officially crowned the Holy Roman Em-
peror by the pope. The Spanish conquests
in the New World had brought him pres-
tige and a fortune in silver. Charles
strongly believed in the Christianizing mis-
sion of the conquistadores; in Europe, he
saw his own holy mission in the fight
against Protestantism that was threatening
the authority of the pope and emperor in
Germany and in the Low Countries. In
1521, at the Diet of Worms, Charles had
condemned the teachings of Martin
Luther, the German monk who was lead-
ing the revolt against the Catholic Church,
known as the Protestant Reformation.
Charles sent inquisitors and troops to
ruthlessly put down Protestant rebellion
and worked to ally the princes of Germany
with the Catholic Church and against the
Protestant movement. In 1531 his Protes-
tant opponents responded by organizing
the Schmalkaldic League against him. The
league allied with France against Charles;
its officers seized Catholic properties, ex-
pelled Catholic leaders, and forcibly con-
verted many German cities to Protestant-
ism.
At the Council of Trent in 1545,
Charles persuaded several German princes
to join his crusade against Protestantism.
With his opponents divided over strategy,
he decisively defeated the Schmalkaldic
League at the Battle of Mühlberg in 1546.
In 1555 the Peace of Augsburg finally es-
tablished a lasting compromise between
Catholics and Protestants. By this treaty,
the religion of each realm would be that
of its prince. In the next year Charles ab-
dicated his throne. His brother Ferdinand
replaced him as the Holy Roman Emperor
and his son Philip II became king of Spain.
Charles entered a monastery in Yuste,
Spain, where he died in 1558.Charles VIII ......................................
(1470–1498)
King of France whose most important
legacy was an invasion of Italy that threw
the political world of the Italian Renais-
sance into turmoil for generations. Born
in the castle of Amboise, he succeeded
Louis XI to the throne of France in 1483
at the age of thirteen. The young king, who
had little formal education and couldCharles VIII